Twice Over
by vanitas hoth
Summary: “You’re offering me another fairytale, and I gave up all that magic and adventure three years ago. I’ve already played my part.” Kagome had expected her happily ever after to hold up, but time was intent on tearing it down.
1. Chapter 1

Twice Over

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inuyasha characters.**

**AN: It's naïve of an author to think that anything is truly original, especially in fanfiction. However, I ask you to keep an open mind and pardon the slow pace. I also hope you enjoy it enough to leave a review. So, without further adieu… enjoy.**

oOo

"I am not asking much of you, except to consider what I am offering you."

"You're offering me another fairytale, and I gave up all that magic and adventure three years ago. I've already played my part."

A tense silence stretched between them; outside Kagome's bedroom window, the shrine grounds were still and splashed in places with bright, white-blue moonlight. The winter wind was bitter. Kagome shivered as it trickled in through her window, left ajar and frosted with iridescent smatterings of ice, and watched as the papers on her desk rustled before falling still again. Besides the wide shaft of light coming from her window, her room was dark, all the colors muted and tinged blue by the shadows.

"Perhaps," said Sesshoumaru quietly. He sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor with his back rigidly straight and his gaze, as he turned it on her, bright and shrewd. "But this time it is not destiny calling upon you, I am. Whatever prejudices you hold against me for my past actions can be set aside so that you—"

"This has nothing to do with you!" Kagome cut across him sternly, and ignored his annoyed frown. "I don't want to go back, and I seriously doubt that anything you have to say will change my mind."

"I assure you this is neither," Sesshoumaru said curtly. "The past is not as you left it, and, to be forthright, it was never your place to leave in the first place. I will not question the nature of your decision, but your work remains unfinished, and the longer you shut yourself away in this present, the more the past will suffer."

A short, hot burst of indignation shot through her, turning her cheeks red and making her pajamas uncomfortable against her arms and legs. Whatever Sesshoumaru was alluding to, she would have none of it. Naraku was gone, the jewel was gone, everybody got their happily ever after. Again, an inkling of anger trickled through her, but she stifled it and turned a stony face to Sesshoumaru. Kagome refused to let him get the best of her through her tragically open and caring heart, nor would she let him make her feel as though her decision had been selfish. For three years she'd sacrificed almost every chance at having a life here in the present to ensure that it would stay as it was; if she hadn't, the repercussions of Naraku's success would have been unfathomable, and definitely catastrophic. The dust had settled, and she deserved to live her own life, in her own time.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome began, sounding like a mother telling her child something for the hundredth time, "I like it here. I like the sense of normalcy, the routine, and I like knowing that I'll live to see tomorrow. Whatever problems you're talking about… I don't know, tag team with Inuyasha or something to fix them, but I can't do it. I can't just go back and pretend I'm a priestess again; I doubt I even have my powers anymore," she said. Predicting him to comment on Inuyasha's worthlessness in his situation, Kagome was taken aback when Sesshoumaru shook his head, a small gesture, and looked away toward the window. Moonlight illumined his face and he glowed; it was beautiful and eerie and Kagome thought wryly how the most beautiful of things were designed to distract from their lethal capabilities.

"I have tried. We," he corrected himself, "Inuyasha and I, along with your other friends have tried, but the seed has been sown and the roots have grown deep in your absence. If things continue as they are at this rate, then youkai as you and I know them, will be extinct in _my_," he emphasized the word to make it clear he meant the past, "near future."

Another stretch of silence. Chills skittered up and down Kagome's spine that had nothing to do with the wind, and everything to do with Sesshoumaru's disturbing prediction. What had they- Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru- together not been able to accomplish? The thought, though Kagome had no particular thing in mind, that there was something worse than Naraku that was destroying youkai at such a rapid rate, in the small three year span she'd been gone, was staggering. Wide eyed, she asked Sesshoumaru, "Who or what? And how have they gotten so strong in three years?" Kagome's mind was reeling and she felt nauseous. Sesshoumaru looked grim, but otherwise unaffected, and, for a moment she thought she saw a fleeting look of satisfaction enter his eyes. If he was satisfied, he was even sicker than she thought. He had been marginally more civil tonight than he had been in their past meetings, however, and she doubted that he was gaining any remote amount of pleasure given the circumstances.

"Humans," he said simply, without disdain or conceit. "In the short time you have been absent they have done more than come together. They have formed an army that is growing rapidly, with the last known count near one thousand. And they are not untrained or without direction; reports have supported the theory that a demon slayer, or someone learned in their techniques, has passed their knowledge on. There have been several raids on youkai establishments during the last year with varying degrees of success, but each with a clear message," Sesshoumaru said and paused, giving Kagome an opportunity to comment. However, she remained silent with her knees hugged to her chest, so he continued. "No prisoners have been taken, but their methods of killing are both gruesome and cruel: They are not open to negotiations, and desire nothing more than the destruction of my race."

"Have you asked?" Kagome blurted out, surfacing from the crevice between her knees and chest. Sesshoumaru shot her a glare.

"Several diplomats have been sent to what we know as strongholds, and the ones that have returned bear nothing but wounds," he replied coldly.

There was nothing that Kagome could say that wouldn't sound like she was sympathetic toward the humans, and it felt foreign for her to think of them as humans when she was every inch the same as they were. Except she wasn't, not really. She believed in peace between all races without violence, and whilst her time in Sengoku Jidai had injected the ideal with a painstaking amount of realism, cohabitation was certainly possible. By no means was Kagome ignorant of the savagery mankind was possible of, for it was written clearly across pages of history books and annals around the world, but this sudden surge of violence… she was having a hard time wrapping her mind around it.

Cautiously, Kagome asked, "Has there been any, uh, involvement?" She didn't know how to phrase it any other way and she hoped Sesshoumaru would understand what she was trying to say. Judging by his flat stare, he didn't, so she tried again. "Demon involvement?"

Sesshoumaru did not answer right away, and his already dour expression darkened further. "It would be a relief if there was, but they are acting of their own volition."

"Oh."

Everything that went unsaid hung in the air and pressed down on her. It was horrible, there was no doubt, and she had a thousand questions she wanted to ask. But ultimately, even if Sesshoumaru did answer every single one of her questions, it would not change what was happening, what would happen. By the sounds of things, these people were out for blood, and they were getting it. By nature she was a caring person, and hated to see the innocent cut down out of bloodlust; they were innocent, the youkai that were being killed. Kagome had to remind herself of that. In the past she had helped innocent youkai escape Naraku, and the only thing different between then and now was that… what was it? It could be because Naraku was a threat to humans, hanyou, and youkai alike, and cared nothing for whichever he cut down on his war path. But, rewinding through the conversation, Kagome realized with a small sense of self disgust that it was because Sesshoumaru claimed these people. He had said "the destruction of my race", meaning not just himself and his small group, or even his particular species. He meant the youkai community as a whole.

It was astounding.

To her, Sesshoumaru had always been a constant. Always the more powerful, more bloodthirsty, more detached, and more self-centered brother. Aside from Rin, Kagome had never seen him openly display any sort of emotion for another living creature. Oh, she'd always known there were more of them, powerful youkai like him. There had to be. And though she'd never given it any serious thought, or rather, because she'd never given it any serious thought, she'd ignorantly written the rest of them off as being just as malevolent and isolated as he was.

She was wrong. Dead wrong.

But… "What can I do about it?"

His answer was swift and plain: "You can come back."

Though considerably weaker than before, Kagome stuck with her resolve. Shaking her head as though to clear it of thought, she sighed, "That doesn't tell me anything. Yes, I could go back, but when I got there what would happen? A spontaneous wave of peace that'd wash over the land?" She grimaced. "I don't think so. A place to stay and protection aren't enough incentive for me to uproot myself again, Sesshoumaru."

"I was not aware you would require more, or would even want for more, given your nature," he commented, squinting at her. "I would think the possible genocide of an entire culture would have moved you more deeply."

"It's moved me plenty!" Kagome shot back angrily, nostrils flaring. "But I don't see how I can change any of it! I'm not some miracle worker, and I have half a mind to think that the whole Naraku thing was a fluke. As one person I'm not capable of much more than messing up and first aid. And I'm sure there are plenty of people that can do that better than I can," Kagome said, not even addressing Sesshoumaru anymore. He probably had no interest in her reasons for self loathing, but if anybody needed to see how under qualified and useless she'd be in this situation, it needed to be him since he seemed to be the only one that thought she'd be of some use.

Rising to his feet, Sesshoumaru covered the distance to the bed in two swift steps and glowered down at her. "You are the only one that doubts your capabilities. Had I thought you would be worthless, I would have not bothered wasting my time," he said acerbically, his voice all steel. "Now," Sesshoumaru held out his hand, silken sleeve sliding back to show the two smooth stripes of magenta that encircled his wrist. Kagome stared at his hand, at his gleaming armor, at his face, the visage of resolute determination. "Either you will come with me, or you will not."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Kagome thought of every reason why she shouldn't take his hand. Her hands tangled themselves in her sheets, and when she opened her eyes again, all her muscles relaxed though she hadn't felt them tense up. Sesshoumaru was still looking intently at her, and his hand was still extended.

"Away we go," Kagome muttered, taking his hand and climbing onto his back, careful to mind his armor. Sesshoumaru stepped to the open window and mounted the sill, crouching low and preparing to spring. Kagome gripped his shoulders as her stomach knotted in anticipation, and in a high voice asked, "Are the others waiting for us?"

Sesshoumaru crouched lower in the window, and Kagome gasped as his hand grasped her thigh. Pausing, he looked over his shoulder at her, eyes half hidden by his bangs. "You have ridden like this before with Inuyasha, correct?" Kagome nodded. "Then I suggest you place your arms around my neck, or you will fall."

Blushing out of embarrassment, Kagome awkwardly maneuvered her arms around his neck, ever mindful of his hellish armor, and clasped her hands at his collarbone, covered in the thick layers of his haori. Comfortable as she was going to get, Kagome asked again: "Are the others waiting for us?"

"No."

Without any further conversation, Sesshoumaru leapt from the window out into the winter night, and for a second as they reached the peak of the leap, Kagome felt as though she were flying.


	2. Chapter 2

Twice Over

AN: I want to thank all of you who reviewed and favorited this! I appreciated sitting at my computer after I posted the first chapter and watching my inbox fill up with alert emails. Though it's by no means concrete, I will be trying to adhere to a weekly updating schedule. I'll be going back to college in August, so that might screw with things, but I'm gonna do my best to keep you guys satisfied.

oOo

"It's not going to work," Kagome muttered into Sesshoumaru's collar as Sesshoumaru alighted on the steps that led to the well house. "It hasn't worked since I left, and it's not going to work now."

She was still pressed against Sesshoumaru's back- he must've felt her shivering and thankfully he did not make her leave his warmth. Kagome, between shivers, wondered what had mellowed him out so much in the last three years.

"Have you tried?" he asked her, a hint of mimicry in his voice, at which Kagome rolled her eyes.

"No, I haven't."

Mounting the last few steps, Sesshoumaru stopped just in front of the doors. Kagome didn't have to see it to know that he was eyeing the heavy, iron padlock on the mildewed wooden doors; she'd installed it after she'd returned to deter herself from trying to do anything she would regret. Kagome had entrusted the key to her mother, who had hidden it somewhere in the house. Kicking the door in would cause too much noise, and surely wake up the rest of her sleeping family back at the house, so Kagome craned her neck to try to see what Sesshoumaru would do.

Slowly, he released her thigh, and once he was sure she was not going to slide off, Sesshoumaru brushed his fingers over the padlock, tracing all the contours carefully like a blind man would read brail. Kagome didn't know what that would accomplish until the acrid scent of burning metal wafted up toward her and she coughed violently as she accidently inhaled the fumes. Squinting over his shoulder, she was looking at what appeared to be an impromptu chemistry experiment; dropping to the ground in corroded chunks, the padlock smoked and sizzled- the intense smell of sulphur made Kagome's eyes water and she buried her face into the crook of Sesshoumaru's neck to avoid it.

After a moment or two, Sesshoumaru slid the doors open and immersed the two of them into a far more impenetrable darkness. The interior of the well house smelled strongly of mildew and seemed to radiate a sluggish, damp chill, which sent Kagome shivering all over again. Practically gliding down the second set of stairs, Sesshoumaru towered over the rim of the well. This time when he slid his hand from her thigh, Kagome knew he meant for her to get down; together, the two of them gazed silently into the well, Sesshoumaru passively and Kagome with a skeptical scowl.

"If I jump down there, and it doesn't work," she said to Sesshoumaru without looking at him, "I'll break both my legs and probably injure my spine somehow, which'll condemn me to a wheelchair for the rest of my life."

"You have hospitals, Inuyasha has told me as much."

It'd be foolish to mistake what he just said as a joke, because Sesshoumaru just didn't do that. Nonetheless, Kagome stole a glance at him from the corner of her eyes. Stoic and unreadable as ever. Returning her gaze back to the well, she said quietly, "I feel it, the well I mean, but it's weak."

"You are able to sense its magic?"

"Well yeah, I guess so. It's never been this blaring signal or anything," she added quickly. "But more of this tingle I get, kind of like how it feels when you get goose bumps when its cold or you're scared, or…" she trailed off when she noticed he was looking down his nose at her, an eyebrow arched.

"A tingle?"

Glad it was dark so he couldn't see her flush in embarrassment, she mumbled an affirmative. Suddenly, the splotches of blue-green lichen that grew along the rim of the well were much more interesting than they had been a minute ago, and Kagome concentrated on them instead of risking another glance at Sesshoumaru.

"Our window of opportunity might very well be closing by the second, if what you say is true," Sesshoumaru commented. "Jump."

Kagome said incredulously, forgetting the lichen and whirling around to face him, "What do you mean, 'jump'?"

"Into the well. Jump into the well," he told her impatiently.

Kagome knew for a fact that at the bottom of that well was solid ground. And even if it was still working, it's magic was very weak. She felt it, like a pulse against her skin that was getting slower and feebler. "I already told you its magic isn't as strong as it was. If we jump in, we may not even land in the past. For all we know, it'll take us to World War II or something!" Kagome exclaimed nervously, realizing the enormity of her own words. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, and though she knew he didn't know what World War II was, her whining was obviously getting on his nerves.

"Then hurry."

Lost in her own panic, Kagome pushed aside her inhibitions, pulled one leg over the edge, then another so she was sitting on the rim, teetering for a moment. Sesshoumaru had moved behind her, and stared intently at her. What was she _doing_? "What if it doesn't work? What if you end up a day forward or behind me when you jump?" she asked desperately, needing him to infuse her with the cool confidence that he had.

He did not answer her, but removed something from his sash, a dagger Kagome hadn't noticed, and handed it to her. Confidently, he told her, "This will ensure that you get to the past. Now go," he said firmly and pressed the dagger into her hands.

Clutching it to her chest, Kagome hesitated for a moment, and then slid off the lip of the well.

She held her breath as though she'd plunged into a pool instead of an empty, and hoped with everything in her that if she did land, she'd be knocked unconscious. Air rushed up around her, billowing through pajamas, which flapped wildly around her. On her arms gooseflesh rose, and the pulse of the well, so dim before, flared, beating furiously.

All the air had been sucked from her lungs, and Kagome choked in the endless darkness. Her fingers curled around the dagger, and the blade sliced into them as though her skin had been as thin and delicate as rice paper. Her hiss of pain was lost.

Then she was floating gently toward the bottom. When she touched down, her knees buckled and she collapsed at the bottom of the well, gasping and wheezing for air. Through her tear-veiled eyes, she could make out white shapes and as she swiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand, she realized they were bones, covered in a soft dusting of snow.

_It worked… _

Floundering in the thin layer of snow, Kagome huddled in a corner with the dagger still pressed against her chest, feeling ridiculous for not dressing in something more appropriate for the weather that was drastically colder than it had been back in the present. Even without wind, the bitter cold cut through her thin flannel pajamas and bit viciously at her skin. Kagome bit her bottom lip and curled into a tighter ball. She'd wait for Sesshoumaru to materialize so that they could get to shelter.

She waited, and waited and soon not even her body heat could keep the blade warm anymore.

Kagome dozed, her mane of wild black hair hanging haphazardly around her face, lips tinted blue. Above the well, the moon drifted a bit farther toward the center of the sky, sliding behind layered grey clouds that began to sprinkle the land with fresh snow.

How much time had passed before she woke, Kagome did not know, but as she gradually unfurled herself her entire body resounded with a dull ache; her joints seemed to have been frozen in place and likely so her entire body had been covered with snow. Looking around the dim space, Kagome spotted a ladder that ran up the opposite wall, interwoven with withered, spidery vines. Dismally she realized she would have to climb it if she wanted to get out of this damned hole.

But she couldn't get out. Sesshoumaru hadn't come yet, and her body wouldn't stop shivering; her heart, beating wildly against her ribs, barely allowed her to breathe. Gasping, dizzy, and furious, Kagome struggled to stand. Her hands raked at the hard, packed earthen wall, dirt lodging under her fingernails. Her breaths came out in painful gasps, like sand scratching over rock, and she pounded the wall.

Where the hell was he? Dragging herself up, Kagome gritted her teeth against the strain and simultaneously cursed herself for listening to Sesshoumaru, for taking his hand and letting him talk her into this. For her goddamn legs that wouldn't support her, keep her standing. Fingers that could barely bend. Couldn't possibly grip the rungs of the ladder…

Sagging against the wall, Kagome decided that instead of trying to walk across to the ladder, she'd work her way around the edge of the well and use the walls as support. Cautiously, with her back against the wall, Kagome side-stepped her way around the perimeter of the well, moving a few inches at a time, stopping when her shivers turned into spasms. When finally she was able to run the tips of her fingers over a rung, though she couldn't grasp it fully, Kagome smiled through the tear tracks on her face.

Craning her head back, she gazed up through the flurry of flakes that eddied and swirled as they fell. Kagome hadn't remembered a time when there'd been this much snow and, looking at the ladder, when the well had seemed this deep. The ladder stretched on forever to her. A bone-rattling round of shivers shook her body again, and she coughed trying to catch her breath. Inhaling as deeply as she could manage, Kagome turned to face the wall, gripped the nearest rung, and mounted the ladder. As if made of rusted tin, Kagome slowly began to climb, raw determination succeeding where her muscles failed.

At last cresting the lip of the well, Kagome hauled herself over the edge and, unable to keep her balance on deadened legs, pitched forward into the snow. Just as her muscles had failed, now her determination fled her, bleeding out from her body into the frozen ground below. There was nothing left now, but to lay here, numb and exhausted. Nothing left now, but to lay her and wait for someone who wouldn't come, for death that would surely come…

Just across the meadow, she thought, was Kaede's village, where maybe Sango and Miroku and Inuyasha and Shippou really _were_ waiting for her. Maybe Sesshoumaru lied. Maybe they were there, in Kaede's hut, waiting for her. Around a fire, she fantasized, and the thought of fire seemed to spark a sensation inside her that spread throughout her body and left her tingling with phantom warmth.

It felt good, nice. Like the fire would feel. Warm, comforting.

As Kagome slipped gently out of consciousness, Kagome smiled. An eerie smile. Almost like the smile of a corpse, blue-lipped and bloody from where she'd worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Underneath her fingernails, the black dirt stood out starkly against her colorless skin. At the bottom of the well, Sesshoumaru's dagger lay half hidden in the snow among the gleaming white bones.

oOo

Clearing the stone wall that surrounded the village, Sesshoumaru hit the ground running, flying over the snow like a large, white and silver bird. He cleared the meadow quickly and disappeared into the forest, darting around trees, sometimes taking to the branches when the ground became too cumbersome. In his hand flapped two thick garments, red and white, the only clothes he could find that would keep her warm enough. It had been easy enough to get them for despite their wall and their guards, the humans were still as unaware as they've ever been. Even as he had entered the shrine, full of sleeping shrine maidens and a priestess, he had met no resistance.

He remembered that she'd been a miko, reincarnated at least, and thought that the garb would be fitting. Dropping down to the forest floor, Sesshoumaru approached Ah-Un; they acknowledged him with a snort of smoke and from Ah a knowing look. He blinked his topaz eyes as Sesshoumaru peered down at her, simultaneously shielded and huddled, like a child burrowing into her mother's bosom, into their soft underbelly. They'd formed a sort of nest, encircling her completely so that the tips of their noses touched their hind flank. Around them was a circle of grass, the snow having melted because of the heat their body radiated, and the snowflakes that did drift down evaporated almost instantly after landing on their scales.

Fragile. Battered. As he looked at her, Sesshoumaru wondered how she hadn't died out there in the snow. By the time he had arrived and found her sprawled and almost completely hidden in the snow, her fingers and toes, as well as her lips, had turned a sickening blue and when he had picked her up, she may as well have been as cold as the ice she was covered in. For a moment, so fast that he would rather think he had not thought it at all, Sesshoumaru worried that she was dead. Though he held no personal attachment to her, she meant everything to what he intended to do, and her death would be on his hands. Her death would make things impossible.

Reaching down, he gently shook her shoulder. By no means would he be surprised if she did not wake up, but when she jerked up into his touch, he was momentarily taken aback. Turning her head from the crook of Ah-Un's front leg, she cracked one bloodshot azure eye open and looked at him. He presented the clothes. "They will keep you warmer." She blinked, and Sesshoumaru took that as understanding.

Kneeling down, slowly he helped her to a sitting position, and he could feel that though her internal body temperature had risen, she was still dangerously cold. Her head lolled back against Ah-Un's side, but Sesshoumaru could see her eyes flicker to him whenever he made a large movement. Her left wrist was badly sprained, and her right ankle was broken. While he had previously planned to let her keep her clothes on, they would now have to provide the bindings to keep the bones and joints in place. Brushing his fingers over her swollen ankle, Kagome groaned and both Ah and Un looked up at him briefly, as if voicing her annoyance. Sesshoumaru had never seen them protective of anybody, not even Rin, and it puzzled him how this girl, Kagome, had gotten them so enamored with her.

"Your wrist and ankle are injured. I need to wrap them," he told her quietly, noting with some satisfaction that her breathing had stabilized, and now her pulse beat at a slow, steady rhythm. She blinked, and nodded her head minutely. "If you allow me to, I will do this for you."

Seeming to comprehend what that meant, she sputtered suddenly and tried to lean forward, eyes opened fully now and staring at him with a look of desperate horror. Her body, though, was still too weak to manage movement on it own, and she grimaced as she fell back against Ah-Un's side. Sesshoumaru watched her quietly, and eventually, after a few contemplative moments, she looked away from him and nodded. A tear, he noticed, ran down her cheek and dripped onto Ah-Un's scales where it evaporated in a wisp of steam.

Perhaps she was worried that by undressing her, he would be violating her in some way. And he supposed that this was true to an extent, but his only concern was making sure she was warm and that her injuries would heal properly. Gazing at her, Sesshoumaru reached out and began to undo the buttons of her shirt, made of an odd, soft material and decorated with intersecting, perpendicular lines and squares. It was somewhat difficult to grasp the tiny disks with his claws, but eventually he got the hang of it and quickly undid them all.

He did not feel shameful as he stared, nor disgusted. She had pale skin, probably more so because of her lack of circulation, marred only by the tiny crescent scar below her left breast. As he went to push her shirt from her shoulders, the back of his hand brushed the swell of her breast and she shivered; her areolas darkened, became taught and she muttered something that Sesshoumaru could tell was dark. He maneuvered her arms out of the sleeves, feeling the solid muscles in her shoulders, her biceps and triceps as they contracted then relaxed again. Ah watched with interest while Un snorted smoke rings and watched them drift up until they disappeared.

"What," she croaked. Sesshoumaru looked up, having tried unsuccessfully to tie the strings of the haori. "Took you so long."

"I will explain it to you another time. Are you able to tie these?" he motioned to the strings that lay limp across the flat plane of her stomach, with only the slightest contours of her abdominal muscles. Glaring at him, she nodded. Nimbly she fastened the ties.

"I want to know now," she demanded in a hoarse whisper. "You were supposed to come… after me, right after me!"

Whatever else she said deteriorated into rasping coughs, and her shoulders pitched forward with the effort. Now that she'd been warmed up- Sesshoumaru could smell it, the musty sickness- her body was reacting wildly, trying to right what it thought was wrong. Placing his finger just underneath her chin, Sesshoumaru frowned. Her pulse was erratic, and alarmingly fast. She remained silent as he tore her shirt and fashioned it into a wrap that he applied to her wrist. Doing something similar to her ankle, Sesshoumaru set it with two relatively even sticks and then used the other sleeve, which had had artfully torn into one long strip of cloth, to make a soft cast. Satisfied with his work, he met her gaze.

"I was still wearing this," he removed a red piece of cloth and set it down beside him. He knew she would recognize it- he'd asked Inuyasha for it before he'd left. "I have figured that the well works differently now. I, Inuyasha, and you have created a temporal anomaly, and it remains open so that we may fix it," he explained. "You left items here in the past, and there are things you took with you to the future, and that has upset the balance of time, in simplest terms."

More conscious and less angry now that she'd been given some food for thought, Kagome gazed thoughtfully at the red bandanna. "So you're saying that my old school neckerchief was like some kind of passport to the future for you?" she asked, as if it was preposterous. "Only Inuyasha and I have been able to get through the well."

"Obviously that's not the case anymore, is it?" he said. "The well allowed me through because I had your neckerchief; it believed I was going to replace it and try to correct the imbalance."

"I can put these on myself," she snapped, swatting his hand away from her hip and snatching the hakamas. Allowing her to put them on herself, he reminded her, "Be mindful of your ankle."

Ignoring him, she shimmed into the billowing red pants, fastened them, and then patted Ah's neck. Obligingly he laid his head across her lap and his eyes drifted shut as she played with his coarse mane. "Temporal anomalies, passports to the future… what does any of that have to do with why I'm here? Screw fancy explanations, I want a goddamned answer," she said in a pleasant voice that belied her inner-anger and fear.

What would he tell her? What could he tell her? "You need to rest, you are trembling and your fever is spiking. I will explain further in the morning."

"No! You dragged me here and I want to kn—"

"Be quiet!" Sesshoumaru growled, cutting across her. Crouched over her, hand muffling her rant, he listened. There, he heard it again. From the east along the same way he'd taken to get here, he heard them. Below his collar, his hackles rose, and instantly his thoughts moved to her.

_Protect her. _

Kagome remained perfectly still, eyes wide and questioning him in their terror. _What's wrong?_ they asked. Taking his hand away from her mouth, Sesshoumaru motioned for her to stay quiet. If they were to escape this, she needed to cooperate and not panic.

Or, he thought wryly, ask questions.

So low that she had to lean forward to hear him, Sesshoumaru said, "There are soldiers coming from the east, and they are armed. Stay quiet. Do you understand?" She nodded. Grimfaced, Sesshoumaru stood and pulled her up with him, making sure she could stand on her ankle without his help before he released her arm. Swiftly, he removed his armor and fastened it to Ah-Un's saddle. The dragon was as agitated as he was, and as they stood as well, Un let out a short burst of flame.

In the quiet of the forest, they could both hear now the clanking of armor and the talking. Abruptly, Sesshoumaru took Kagome onto his back and dropped into a low crouch. She was shaking against his back. In a trembling voice she whispered, "What are we going to do?"

Instinct told him that he was to stay and fight and kill, and his heart beat in anticipation of the battle, of the blood.

"Run."

oOo

AN: I didn't want to make the plot extremely complicated right off the bat by giving some elaborate, magical explanation for how Sesshoumaru got to Kagome's time. If you've ever seen the second Inuyasha movie, then you'll probably understand what I based the theory I used off of. Many of you are wondering what Kagome can do, why he brought her back, why her friends aren't waiting for her, and while there wasn't a lot about that in this chapter, next chapter should answer some questions.

And remember, some things are secrets for a reason. ;)

Leave a review on your way out! Please&thank-you.


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